1. The Poor And Hungry (2000)
When Indie Memphis started in 1998, Craig Brewer was a clerk at a Barnes & Noble bookstore. He had tried to shoot a movie called Melody’s Surviving the traditional way, on film, and failed miserably. His father, Walter Brewer, had read an article about the new digital video technology that enabled DVD-quality images and editing on a desktop computer, and suggested Craig try it. Soon after, Walter Brewer passed away of a sudden heart attack, and Craig poured his meager inheritance into what would become a game changer for Memphis film, and the first big hit for Indie Memphis. The melancholy story of a Memphis car thief who falls in love with a cello player not only launched Brewer’s Hollywood career, but also the careers of actors John Still, Lindsey Roberts, T.C. Sharpe, Eric Tate, and Dennis Phillippi. Since then, Brewer has served as an inspiration and mentor for a generation of Memphis filmmakers.
2. George Washington (2001)
Indie Memphis was started by Memphis filmmakers as a place to show their work, but in 2001, the festival moved to Beale Street and attracted record crowds with an expanded lineup that included more out-of-town movies than ever before. Little Rock native David Gordon Green’s film George Washington premiered at the Orpheum Theatre, and the meditative tale of three poor kids from North Carolina became the hit of the festival. Roger Ebert and The New York Times called the film one of the best of the year. Green went on to a distinguished career that included directing Pineapple Express and HBO’s East Bound and Down, while actor Paul Schneider starred in NBC’s Parks and Recreation. “It really opened my eyes to what indie film could be,” says former Indie Memphis director Les Edwards.
3. This Is What Love In Action Looks Like (2011)
In June 2005, Collierville teenager Zach Stark came out to his parents as gay. They forced him to enroll in a gay reparative therapy facility called Love In Action. The night before he left home, he posted a long, tearful message about his plight on the early social media network MySpace. A grassroots protest movement sprang up in response to the injustice, and director Morgan Jon Fox was there with his camera. At Indie Memphis 2005, he screened a rough cut of the documentary that was as moving as it was raw and angry. That could have been the end of it, but Fox continued to work on the project on and off for the next five years. By the time the final documentary was ready for Indie Memphis 2011, Love In Action had closed and its director John Smid had come out as gay and reputed his former actions. The film transformed from a vitriolic tirade into a testament to the power of compassion and acceptance. This Is What Love In Action Looks Like is a landmark in LBGT cinema and helped kick off a national movement against so-called “ex-gay” treatments. In a world where political protests are regularly organized via social media, it’s more prophetic and relevant than ever.
4. Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011)
In 1993, filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (shown at right with Jason Baldwin) heard about a gruesome murder of three children in West Memphis, Arkansas. Three teenagers, Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley, and Jason Baldwin, were accused of the murder, and the filmmakers convinced HBO to finance a documentary about the trial. But once on the ground in West Memphis, Berlinger and Sinofsky became convinced that the West Memphis Three were innocent, and the trial, which ended with Echols sentenced to death and Misskelley and Baldwin to life in prison, was a historic miscarriage of justice. For 18 years, the filmmakers led a movement to try and exonerate them, and just weeks before the premiere of Paradise Lost 3, which presented new forensic evidence, the West Memphis Three were finally released from prison. Baldwin, barely two months out of prison, attended the emotional Indie Memphis screening, and the film went on to be nominated for an Academy Award.
5. The Keepers (2014)
Memphis directors Joann Self Selvidge and Sara Kaye Larson kicked open the door to the indie film boy’s club with this finely wrought documentary. The Keepers is an intimate portrait of the people who keep the Memphis Zoo running, day in, day out. Using only the words of their subjects, Selvidge and Larson explore the deep, complex relationships between humans and their animal charges. You’ll never look at a giraffe the same way again. The film is currently available for streaming on Amazon and Hulu under its new title See The Keepers: Inside The Zoo.
6. Paterson (2016)
In 1989, independent director Jim Jarmusch came to Memphis to film Mystery Train, creating an indelible portrait of Downtown when it was down and out. In 2016, Indie Memphis announced a new partnership with Amazon Studios, the online retailer’s venture into film production and distribution. The first fruits of the new era included Jarmusch’s film Paterson, which screened at Indie Memphis more than a month before its release. The film features Star Wars: The Force Awakens star Adam Driver as an aspiring poet working as a bus driver in Paterson, New Jersey. Its exquisite pacing, beautiful images, and stunning performance by Driver made it the hit of Indie Memphis, and earned Driver’s canine star Nellie the Palm Dog Award at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. — by Chris McCoy
